Chuck
Peddle

The computer pioneer developed the 6502 and one of the first
personal computers.

Chuck Peddle got the idea of developing a personal computer. It
should be a closed system that can immediately be used after plugging
it to the power outlet. The result was the PET. Almost at the same
time the Apple II was introduced. PET's features were built-in
monitor, integrated cassette device and the well-known BASIC
interpreter from Microsoft. The PET has survived many modifications
and is still popular, thanks to the typewriter keyboard introduced in
later models.

He is one generation older than the miracle children among computer
constructors, Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs. In 1973, Chuck Peddle
went to Motorola to among others co-operate in developing the 6800
microprocessor.

The 6800, one of the first microprocessors on the market, was
correspondingly expensive with its price of 200 dollars. Chuck Peddle
thought that this price would inhibit the processor from conquering
the market. He left Motorola and had a fresh start at MOS
Technology.

What he developed in this relatively small company, should soon
become
the most successful microprocessor of the first microcomputer decade --
the 6502 MPU. Nobody could anticipate that it was the basis of a whole
industry that started a social revolution.

One person who detected the worldwide effects of microprocessors and
especially the 6502 from MOS Technology was Jack Tramial, the
ex-president of Commodore. Until then Commodore's turnovers had been
very modest.

It is not hard to understand that Tramiel, the main client of
4-function-chips for pocket calculators by MOS Technology, bought the
company the other day, although Commodore was in financial troubles
itself. But for Tramiel, the most important part of the deal was
among the 6502 the developing engineer Chuck Peddle.

Chuck Peddle had certainly also made an impression with his concept
of
a personal computer. Similar ideas were brought out independent of
Peddle by the Apple founders Wozniak and Jobs. Chuck Peddle was so
sure of his idea that he allied with Bill Gates, the founder of
Microsoft and father of the popular BASIC interpreter, to buy up
Apple. This took place almost at the same time when Commodore bought
MOS Technology. Wozniak and Jobs wanted back then 150,000 dollars for
Apple, but Peddle and Gates could only raise two thirds of the
required funds.

Thus Chuck Peddle stayed at Commodore and in 1977 took over the
development of the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). At the same
time Wozniak and Jobs were building the Apple II. The PET differed
from it by its built-in monitor, integrated cassette device as well as
by a keyboard, whose quality could be better compared with a pocket
calculator than with a typewriter. In spite of this disadvantage, the
first lot of 1000 PETs were rapidly sold at about 1600 dollars a
piece. The first generation of microcomputers was born that was
specially developed for private home use.

Three years later Chuck Peddle developed a new talent -- the one of
a
company president. Together with Chris Fish, a former financer of
Commodore, he founded Sirius Systems Technology as daughter enterprise
of the Walter Kidde Corporation.

The development in the area of personal computers was concentrated
on
the 16-bit chips at that time, like the Intel 8088. Also IBM was
working on a PC, but Sirius brought the Sirius I some weeks earlier to
the market. The Sirius I was the first inexpensive microcomputer of
the 16-bit generation that was produced in big quantities and was
widely noticed.

The Sirius I could be used very conveniently, thanks to its detached
keyboard and flicker-free high resolution graphics monitor. The
Sirius I set an until then unknown standard for microcomputer office
systems.